HEAD COACH James Dickey OPENING STATEMENT "I'm happy you all stuck around as well as our fans because I certainly wouldn't have blamed anyone had they left at halftime. That was about as inefficient a half as you could have. It was a combination of things, number one being Louisiana was good defensively. They were physical and got into us and pressured us. We didn't handle it very well and they took us out of the comfort zone. Player movement and ball movement wasn't there for us because they took it away."

"Our defense for the most part was pretty good but then we started giving up offensive rebounds and we gave up 11 of those. We gave them 22 extra possessions in the first half and you just can't do that. They were tougher than us in the first half and that's what we told our players. Good thing it was a 40-minute game."

"Let me summarize the first half by saying that it was my fault. My job is to get them ready to play and they were not ready tonight. It's always evident when you don't get lose balls, you're a step slow defensively, you don't rebound and you turn the ball over. Those things are very indicative of a team not being ready to play. I have to do a better job of getting those guys ready to play, not just in the second half. We competed in the second part of the game. We hit threes, worked the ball inside-outside, and we had people come off the bench and play well. We also hit a high percentage of free throws. I'm very pleased we won and how we competed but we have to be a team that competes for 40 minutes and we have to be a team that relies on scoring by committee and we have to have balance."

On confidence"One of the things is that our guys have confidence but you can't have the mentality that we'll turn it on just when we need to. We need the killer instinct mentality, jump out in front and pour on pressure offensively and defensively. We had a 26 point turn around, being down by 13 and then winning by 13. If you can do that in one half, then our biggest lead should be at the end of the first half. I have to do a better job getting our guys ready to play."

On Kendrick "He didn't screen, rebound, defend or play that entire well in the first half. When he went in the second half, he really established himself and played a whole lot better. He's a great low post presence and has a midrange jumper."

On the scoring runs "We tell the team to know when someone has the hot hand, at least give them the opportunity to shoot the ball. We were really scoring well inside and we started running some sets where our guys knew the first option is to give it inside and Kendrick did a much better job meeting the pass and securing the ball."

On the toughness of the game "It's a physical game; we talked to them about toughness both mental and physical and I don't want our guys to cry about a foul. If a foul occurs, I want that to be icing on the cake and to get a basket and if we get an and-one, that's just icing on the cake. That's an area we have to improve on. It's tough out there and it's going to tougher every game. We have to be strong and we have to be physical.

On Kirk Van Slyke "He played a lot more physical and that's something we talked about. I told Kirk (Van Slyke), `man, we want you to shoot the ball, but we want you to get inside and defend too.' He knows that. He can be a good tough match-up because he has the ability to shoot that three from a high-low position, from a pick-and-pop position, but he's also got to get inside and use his size. He's got to defend more. We've talked to him about not being just an offensive player, but we want him to defend on both ends. He got inside and he got to the free throw line eight times and that's we needed him to do. He also got eight rebounds. He just had more of a complete game than he's played for us in a while. He just didn't play inside, he was an outside force as well."

On Louisiana Head Coach Bobby Marlin "Bobby, is a great coach; he's just terrific. I watched his teams for a long time and I've known him for a long time. He's a heck of a coach and they've got a tight schedule if you look at the schedule they have, and now they have to go on the road. He'll have that ball club ready by conference time. They came in here and they executed excellent in the first-half both offensively and defensively. They played with tremendous amount of confidence. I was worried about this game because we were warned that he has good athletes. He's an outstanding coach."

On having a 13-point lead during the game: "Once we got that four-point lead, I felt like that we could really get some stops, and we did; we got stops defensively. We just added on with free throws and baskets. Adam (Brown) had that big three down the stretch and finally got it in double-figures. I was just thinking about each possession, defending, rebounds because they would have to make those."

SOPHOMORE FORWARD KIRK VAN SLYKEOn his post play "The guards did a good job of feeding the ball into the post. I ran hard and tried to fight for position. I just tried to make something happen when I got the ball." On the new style of play he has shown this year "Coach (James) Dickey wants me to be more of a complete player and not just shoot it. He wants me to play hard and fight for rebounds. Just become more of a complete player."

SOPHOMORE FORWARD Kendrick Washington On the difference between the first half and the second "We all just came in and talked to each other. Everyone knew what was going on. Everybody got focused and knew what we were supposed to do but that didn't happen in the first half but we made sure we could get it done in the second half."

On the amount in which he was getting fed the ball "Anyone of our numbers could have been called. He chose my number and I had to perform. It was all about screens. Everything happened off of screens."

SENIOR GUARD Adam BrownOn the struggles of the first half "It wasn't cause we were playing hard. It was a lack of mental effort. We weren't prepared and wasn't mentally focused on what we need to do to beat the team. We were making mistakes. They were effort mistakes and we pretty much have to live with them because they have effort."

On working off ball screens and having the offense go through him "That's coaching. They know us as players and what they put together as a team. They know I am not a go-get-it guy. They gave me some support from the teammates and ran me off a couple of screens."